‘Sports is a field that connects people’: PM Narendra Modi

NEW DELH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday, while addressing a joint press meet with Fiji PM Sitiveni Rabuka, emphasised that sports connect people, highlighting Rugby in Fiji and cricket in India as examples.

He also mentioned India’s Rugby team head coach Waisale Serevi’s role in Indian Rugby and said Indian coaches will help take Fiji’s cricket team to new heights.

“Sports is a field that connects people, and rugby in Fiji and cricket in India are prime examples. Fiji gave us the Star of Rugby 7 Waisale Serevi as coach of our rugby team, and now Indian coaches will help take Fiji’s cricket team to new heights,” PM Modi said in a joint press meet.

Serevi stepped in as head coach of the Indian Rugby men’s and women’s teams last year. Waisale Serevi is a Fijian former ugby union football player and coach, and is a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Serevi is renowned for his achievements in rugby sevens, while also enjoying a long career in fifteen-a-side rugby at both club and national team levels.

Renowned globally as the “King of 7s”, he is widely considered to be the greatest rugby sevens player in the history of the game. He was also an advisor on behalf of World Rugby to the International Olympic Committee, for the inclusion of Sevens Rugby in the Olympics.

A five-time Cup winner at the prestigious Hong Kong Sevens, Serevi steered Fiji to their first World Series title in his first year as player-coach in 2005-06. His most recent stints in coaching are with the Rhinos Rugby USA, the Jamaica National Sevens Rugby Team, and the Russia National Sevens Rugby Team.

Earlier in this month, India’s U20 Women’s team capped off a memorable return to the Asia Rugby Emirates U20 Championship with a bronze medal, defeating Uzbekistan in the third-place playoff on home soil in Rajgir in Bihar.

PM Rabuka arrived in New Delhi on Sunday, marking the start of his official visit to India, which will continue until August 26. This is his first visit to India as the Prime Minister of Fiji. (ANI)